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Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
58,293
I ... actually find it hard to believe that anyone who's played a video game before struggled with the helicopter tutorial boss. It blows my mind that this is a thing that people are complaining about.

Anyway, this game may be somewhat shallow and dumb but it's a lot of fun and is basically nerd porn. If this had come out when I was a kid, I'd probably have never met any girls. :lol:

I'm looking forward to spreading more freedom and liberty to the inhabitants of that God forsaken rock soon.
I've seen several struggling for many, many hours. Worst i saw was on a swedish forum, he had been at it for 7h :) i thought it was immensely hard, Elden Ring bosses came off as really easy in comparison to that fight. I'll admit i don't usually play hard games or even on hard difficulty though. My reflexes and overall response at 51 are not great at all i bet (and i don't think they were that good when i was 15 either tbh, i can count the games i managed to finish on probably 2 hands...)

Are you sure you are talking about the helicopter boss and not some other? Because i'm really struggling to believe anyone would take 7 hours to beat the tutorial boss.
 

Modron

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
11,144
Are you sure you are talking about the helicopter boss and not some other? Because i'm really struggling to believe anyone would take 7 hours to beat the tutorial boss.
These are the kind of people who determine if a game gets a reputation for being hard:
 

mkultra

Augur
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
479
I ... actually find it hard to believe that anyone who's played a video game before struggled with the helicopter tutorial boss. It blows my mind that this is a thing that people are complaining about.

Anyway, this game may be somewhat shallow and dumb but it's a lot of fun and is basically nerd porn. If this had come out when I was a kid, I'd probably have never met any girls. :lol:

I'm looking forward to spreading more freedom and liberty to the inhabitants of that God forsaken rock soon.
I've seen several struggling for many, many hours. Worst i saw was on a swedish forum, he had been at it for 7h :) i thought it was immensely hard, Elden Ring bosses came off as really easy in comparison to that fight. I'll admit i don't usually play hard games or even on hard difficulty though. My reflexes and overall response at 51 are not great at all i bet (and i don't think they were that good when i was 15 either tbh, i can count the games i managed to finish on probably 2 hands...)

Are you sure you are talking about the helicopter boss and not some other? Because i'm really struggling to believe anyone would take 7 hours to beat the tutorial boss.
the first boss yes. That it's a "tutorial boss" isn't really interesting, if you played the game you know the missions after it are way, way easier.. i've played like 10 missions now + the 3 arena fights and it's been an absolute breeze.. much of that is because with all that training on the first boss i got a lot better at the game haha
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
58,293
I ... actually find it hard to believe that anyone who's played a video game before struggled with the helicopter tutorial boss. It blows my mind that this is a thing that people are complaining about.

Anyway, this game may be somewhat shallow and dumb but it's a lot of fun and is basically nerd porn. If this had come out when I was a kid, I'd probably have never met any girls. :lol:

I'm looking forward to spreading more freedom and liberty to the inhabitants of that God forsaken rock soon.
I've seen several struggling for many, many hours. Worst i saw was on a swedish forum, he had been at it for 7h :) i thought it was immensely hard, Elden Ring bosses came off as really easy in comparison to that fight. I'll admit i don't usually play hard games or even on hard difficulty though. My reflexes and overall response at 51 are not great at all i bet (and i don't think they were that good when i was 15 either tbh, i can count the games i managed to finish on probably 2 hands...)

Are you sure you are talking about the helicopter boss and not some other? Because i'm really struggling to believe anyone would take 7 hours to beat the tutorial boss.
the first boss yes. That it's a "tutorial boss" isn't really interesting, if you played the game you know the missions after it are way, way easier.. i've played like 10 missions now + the 3 arena fights and it's been an absolute breeze.. much of that is because with all that training on the first boss i got a lot better at the game haha

The local drunkard did it in under 30m. Spending 7 hours is just incomprehensible to me.
 
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lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,562
Random question: Can you choose the difficulty level for missions? I remember that in AC4 Answer, swapping difficulty to Hard actually changed the level in new and interesting ways rather than just "add HPx2 to all enemies". Ie: In one mission you were supposed to get to a boss through a rocket. In Hard mode, the rocket fails, forcing you to boost your way to the boss' location, dodging its missile spam on the way here.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
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Mar 23, 2006
Messages
58,293
Nope, nothing like that.

This game seems to have stripped some old AC features but then added pseudo-Sekiro bosses.
 
Self-Ejected

gabel

fork's latest account
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I haven't played this yet, and depending on when it'll be going on at least a 50% sale, I never may.
But everything I've been following points to one simple fact: The decline of FromSoft is continuing, slowly but surely.
They're simply descending from a very high peak, down towards the very deep abyss of the remainder of the gaming industry, which is why games like AC VI still get a pass among fans and people who like games in general.
But I don't have high hopes for future titles after Elden Ring and AC VI.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
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Messages
58,293
So i did the Balam Redguns mission, the one where you attack the dam.

The banter was something out of Starship Troopers, no, not the original one, the shit sequels lmao.

I hope it's just those guys and i hope i won't have to steam up with them again.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
58,293
I haven't played this yet, and depending on when it'll be going on at least a 50% sale, I never may.
But everything I've been following points to one simple fact: The decline of FromSoft is continuing, slowly but surely.
They're simply descending from a very high peak, down towards the very deep abyss of the remainder of the gaming industry, which is why games like AC VI still get a pass among fans and people who like games in general.
But I don't have high hopes for future titles after Elden Ring and AC VI.

The problem is that FromSoft's "decline" is still miles ahead of 99% of the trash out there.

I'm already unable to put this thing down and i haven't even gotten to the hard bosses yet (which i fully plan to do the "hard" way, no cheating with bullshit builds). Just something about their design that even when you think some of their decisions are totally hairbreaned its still slick and addicting as hell.
 
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gabel

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I'd call it the silver lining, but otherwise I agree, I even said as much in other words.
But imo FromSoft have still been declining for a while now, which is the sad part.
 
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KIss My Ass

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The decline started after the release of Dark Souls 2 and it's three DLCs. Most people are just too dumb to realize it. But yes, even the worst From Software game is better than 99.9% of modern games.

Are there any Malenia tier bosses in this game? I'll dread that shit.
 

MasPingon

Arcane
Joined
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Just posting some AC fashion

5026e5c64b1cf1fe6c5dc2d588142c7e.png


This game is addicting as hell. It wasn't easy beginning for me(I was the one getting raped by tutorial boss) but now I feel like total badass. We need more games on the market where you have streight fun like this.
 

Lyric Suite

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Are there any Malenia tier bosses in this game? I'll dread that shit.

The opinions i hear about this are conflicting as shit.

There are some builds that seem to trivilize bosses and if you don't use those bosses are actually harder than anything in Elden Ring, which to me is clearly hyperbole but since the Sekiro guy was the director of this game there's a possibility they really are that hard (if done the hard way, with no OP builds).

I guess i'll know when i get there.
 
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gabel

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The increasing focus on bullshit bosses is part of the decline.
I enjoyed Sen's Fortress for the fortress, Iron Golem was a good boss after a great level, same with Blighttown and Quelaag etc.. nowadays everything in From games is banal except the bosses, which are bullshit.
Excuse the hyperbole. Still good games compared to the rest of the industry.
 

Dr1f7

Scholar
Joined
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The increasing focus on bullshit bosses is part of the decline.
I enjoyed Sen's Fortress for the fortress, Iron Golem was a good boss after a great level, same with Blighttown and Quelaag etc.. nowadays everything in From games is banal except the bosses, which are bullshit.
Excuse the hyperbole. Still good games compared to the rest of the industry.
sen's fortress was so sick
I remember playing dark souls for the first time, and when you ring the 2nd bell sen's fortress opens up and big snake dudes walk out, I thought that was like the end-game dungeon
 

TedNugent

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6,665
I only finished AC1 and tried AC2 for a bit on the PS2 and the shit controls made it feel more like a mech simulator.
Bingo :cool:

Of course the most retarded mech simulator of all, RAD (Robot Alchemic Drive) has everything else beat in this regard
Analog sticks to control the arms (similar to Fight Night but clunkier), and shoulder buttons to control the plodding legs
And a remote control third person camera to bring it all together

 

jaekl

CHUD LIFE
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After reading through the starfield thread a bit today, I've decided that I was being too hard on this game. It's actually really good compared to everything else this year, I just don't care for robots. The gray colour palette is drab, but it doesn't assault my retinas with extreme tackiness. The opening is pretty dumb but lasts for a mere 20 minutes and the dialogue is only facepalm style cringe, not headache style cringe. :4.5/5:
 

Vyadhis

Learned
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Aug 7, 2020
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The increasing focus on bullshit bosses is part of the decline.
I enjoyed Sen's Fortress for the fortress, Iron Golem was a good boss after a great level, same with Blighttown and Quelaag etc.. nowadays everything in From games is banal except the bosses, which are bullshit.
Excuse the hyperbole. Still good games compared to the rest of the industry.
Am a hopeless lover of From Software but I agree with you. The series at its peak, for me, was about excellent and atmospheric level design topped off with a good boss. People meme on the difficult bosses like O&S, Malenia and Gael so the devs think people want more of that because some big mouths won't shut up. Its the same bullshit where people act like the draw to the series is the difficulty.


Also I'm glad you mentioned Blighttown becasue it was a damn good level that people moan about too much. It sucked on the original hardware due to slowdown but once that was fixed it easily became one of the best zones in the game. The swamp = bad Dark Souls meme is trash. Lets look...

Demons Souls - Valley of Defilement. Peak incline, best swamp level ever.

Blight Town - Awesome, great verticality and fun in general.

The Gutter - Kind of annoying but I enjoyed the atmosphere plus any level involving the torch mechanic is great in DS2.

Farron's Keep - I liked this level somehow but I don't know why.
 

KIss My Ass

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I wish I had a way to record my times with Vanquish in the early days, when I was in the top 10 or top 5 on the challenge leaderboards among the japs and ching-chongs, aka the best of the best. I was that good at this speedy action shit. Now I'm a hollow shell of what I once was. It's depressing as fuck. Games like these bum me out. Just reminds you that you're slowly dying.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
58,293
The increasing focus on bullshit bosses is part of the decline.
I enjoyed Sen's Fortress for the fortress, Iron Golem was a good boss after a great level, same with Blighttown and Quelaag etc.. nowadays everything in From games is banal except the bosses, which are bullshit.
Excuse the hyperbole. Still good games compared to the rest of the industry.
Am a hopeless lover of From Software but I agree with you. The series at its peak, for me, was about excellent and atmospheric level design topped off with a good boss. People meme on the difficult bosses like O&S, Malenia and Gael so the devs think people want more of that because some big mouths won't shut up. Its the same bullshit where people act like the draw to the series is the difficulty.


Also I'm glad you mentioned Blighttown becasue it was a damn good level that people moan about too much. It sucked on the original hardware due to slowdown but once that was fixed it easily became one of the best zones in the game. The swamp = bad Dark Souls meme is trash. Lets look...

Demons Souls - Valley of Defilement. Peak incline, best swamp level ever.

Blight Town - Awesome, great verticality and fun in general.

The Gutter - Kind of annoying but I enjoyed the atmosphere plus any level involving the torch mechanic is great in DS2.

Farron's Keep - I liked this level somehow but I don't know why.

I agree that the world and level design in Dark Souls 1 is what made the game, all though i wouldn't go so far as saying the boss design didn't matter.

However, if you are going to make an argument that loss of focus on level design is "decline", wouldn't that apply to Bloodborne as well?

Because i think that's when the "decline" in question begun, especially since a lot of what was in Bloodborne got carried over into Dark Souls 3.

At that point, one might say something like "well, Bloodborne was a different kind of game, didn't need big interconnected maps like Dark Souls 1", but then, we aren't talking about decline specifically anymore, but different and apparently legitimate directions. In which case, big focus on bosses and less focus on level design is appropriate for games like Bloodborne or Sekiro, but not Dark Souls.

When i first played Dark Souls 3, i made a similar argument, that the focus on boss design at the expense of level design was taking the series in the wrong direction and i even blamed Bloodborne for it. Turns out the issue was that they were super lazy when they made Dark Souls 3 which was really just a Bloodborne total conversion if you really want to get down to it.

Now compared to Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring was a return to form if we consider the legacy dungeons, and it's only the gargantuan open world filler that gets in the way of that special Dark Souls 1 experience, but then Elden Ring is a different beast from either Bloodborne or Sekiro so i'm not sure we can talk about a single, general decline here that basically amounts to bosses at the expense of map design. As much as we all hated the open world, it isn't exactly that. Elden Ring also offers a great deal of customization, build possibilities and lots of "toys" to play around so again you can't say there's a general trend to turn Souls into Bloodborne. Apparently, Dark Souls 3 was a single case here.

This brings us up to Armored Core, because this is a game where the kind of Dark Souls 1 style of world building wouldn't fit. The only way you could expand on the map design here is by making them larger with multiple militarized objectives etc (and i certainly wished they had done that). The introduction of Sekiro bosses into the AC formula is again a different matter than the focus on bosses at the expense of world design that one might see as a degeneration when applied to Souls. I don't know how elaborate maps were in later Armored Core entires but i can't imagine the design was much different than this.
 
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